


Everything Changes

by whatsworthdyingfor



Category: Mr. Iglesias (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:15:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27520615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatsworthdyingfor/pseuds/whatsworthdyingfor
Summary: He first sees her in kindergarten, not that it's anything special really. Then third grade comes, and everything changes.
Relationships: Marisol Fuentes/Mikey Gutierrez
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41





	Everything Changes

He first sees her in kindergarten, not that it's anything special really. 

At first, she completely blends in with all the other new faces crowded around him trying to line up as they wait to enter their classroom on their very first day of school, and truly Mikey is far too focused on trying to convince his mom that really, he would be much better off staying at home with her than coming to school as she was trying to make him do. Then, as he loses his argument with his mom, she is just another terrified face wondering just what is about to happen as they enter this new and very scary chapter in their lives. 

After, as the days continue on and fall comes in earnest leaving the warm summer breezes behind in September, she is the really smart girl who always puts her hand up in class, but other than that, Mikey is far too busy playing with his new friends to really pay her that much attention. 

He knows she is smart, that she always helps the teacher at recess, being that she is usually alone, her serious nature being too much for the other girls in his class so they went off on their own leaving her behind to fend for herself. But despite the other girls in his class having an aversion to hanging out with her, to Mikey, Marisol Fuentes is just another one of the girls, a person that was to be avoided at all costs so he won’t get cooties like his cousin Spider had warned him about a few days before school started. So really, Mikey does all he could to avoid the female population of his class at all costs. 

Looking back, Mikey isn’t really sure he can even remember their first conversation, though based on how he remembers her behaviour in comparison to his (even as a small 5 year old child she was always serious), she was probably telling him off for not paying enough attention or for goofing off while the teacher read them a story. 

All he knows, is as summer creeps back in towards the end of their kindergarten year, Mikey doesn't really like Marisol Fuentes, she is too serious and bossy and is always trying to tell him what to do, and the teacher is always trying to get him (along with the rest of the class, but Mikey is far too focused on his own little world and experiences to notice) to “step up in your studies, like Marisol” or to “calm down and realize that its never too early to take your schoolwork seriously, like Marisol does” or even “stop playing so loudly and quietly read — just look at Marisol, she’s being quiet and enjoying her book, you can too.” Worst of all though is her transgression against his mom, or well, with his mom, against him. 

It happens on a pretty normal day of playing and trying his hardest to ignore the teacher and play with his friends secretly during class. Since it's a Friday he rushes out of school as fast as he can to meet his mom and start the weekend, but he barely arrives to the side of the parking lot where his mom always waits for him before he hears Marisol’s voice calling his name behind him. While Mikey would be only too glad to ignore her and head out with his mom, it's too late, the little pigtailed girl catches his mom’s attention, and his mom tells him to talk to the little girl that is now directly behind him. As he turns around he notices she is holding his backpack, he had forgot it in the classroom in his rush to get home for the weekend. 

While this seems completely innocent on the part of Marisol, it's what she did next that makes it impossible for Mikey to ever do anything but hate her, she begins to chat with his mom, in SPANISH!!!!! Immediately his mom lights up and starts chatting back with her about how she was doing in school, both taking away his mom’s attention from him and his much longed for weekend time! But that isn't even the worst of it, his mom likes Marisol so much that she mentions “Mikey’s adorable little friend Marisol in his class” and even goes so far as too say “she’s so sweet and oh Mikey you need to invite her over for a playdate!” At the family barbecue in front of all of his family, his Abuelita, his Tías and Tios, and worst of all, Spider. 

Spider then proceeds to tease Mikey relentlessly about “his little girlfriend” every time he sees Mikey after that day, and tells all the other cousins that Mikey had cooties from his girlfriend and so all of his cousins refuse to play with him whenever they have family dinners. Needless to say, this is all extremely frustrating for his mind to handle, and he simply decides that from that day on until forever Mikey Gutierrez despises Marisol Fuentes, and thats all there is to it. 

Then, Mikey begins first grade and Marisol Fuentes is assigned to another class, and Mikey completely forgets about the serious young girl who takes her studies far too seriously and was beyond annoying. Mikey loses himself in the struggles of learning entirely new things that were harder than kindergarten, and his new friends in this year’s class and their new obsession with dinosaurs. This largely continues into second grade, Marisol is once again in a different class, and with the school yard being as big as it is with so many kids, Mikey doesn’t think of Marisol once, so by the time he enters the third grade, almost all memory of Marisol is forgotten, and Mikey enters the classroom on the first day of grade three completely unprepared to see her again. 

When he sees her that September morning, already sitting in class and at a desk with her things already placed in her designated spot on the cubby rack, Mikey doesn’t recognize her as the bossy girl from his kindergarten class, but nonetheless, everything changes. He is sure he falls in love. He knows how ridiculous he sounds, but he swears its true, his heart has never felt the way it does when he sees her that morning, and he swears he’ll feel this way forever. He immediately runs over to the seat next to her, eager to claim it so they’ll be table buddies for the year (or at the very least for the rest of the day) and introduces himself, and this is when he finally makes the connection between them. Between this angel sitting next to him with her hair in two perfectly done braids and the prettiest blue hair ties he’s every seen and the little bossy girl he would always run away from in Kindergarten — the look she gives him of complete exasperation is one that no one else could ever make, this he is certain. 

Then she opens her mouth and informs him that she knows who he is, they knew each other in Kindergarten, but apparently he’s forgotten so fine, her name is Marisol and she holds out her hand for him to take. Mikey almost falls out of his seat in his eagerness, an act which only makes her give him a strange look and for him to blush more red than his Sebastian the crab stuffy that he hides in his closet so Spider wont make fun of him for having ‘girly things’. 

But despite the strange look Marisol gives him, she doesn’t take back her hand, and when their hands touch, Mikey is even more certain that he’s meant to be with her, after all — their hands fit perfectly together. He goes through the day completely on air, his seat plan worked and the teacher informs them when class begins that where they sit today will be their seats until Christmas unless they give her a reason to switch them around (and Mikey prays from then on that none of the other dummies in his class with mess this up for him). 

He follows her around at recess and learns that she likes to sit and read under a shaded tree on the opposite side of the playground where Mikey and his friends usually played with their dinosaurs, so Mikey decides to follow her and sit beside her under the shade of the tree while she reads and look through his Pokemon cards. Marisol gives him a strange look as he sits but doesn’t outwardly complain, so Mikey sits down and they spend their recess in silence, just sitting next to one another. When the bell rings signalling for them to go back inside, both Mikey and Marisol quietly collect their things, Marisol even smiles at Mikey when he picks up her sweater for her, and they go back inside to continue lessons, and Mikey is bursting with happiness. He just knows this is the beginning of the rest of his life, and he doesn’t care what all the adults in his life will say, he knows he has found something real, and that someday they are going to be Mr. And Mrs. Gutierrez.

As it turns out, Mikey was right in his assumption that the adults in his life don’t take his newfound love seriously, or at least his mom didn’t when he tells her all about the angel Marisol in his class that he’s going to marry someday because he simply loves her too much to do otherwise, and all she does is chuckle and shake her head in that condescending adult way of ‘aren’t kids so cute in their silly dreams that are so far fetched that all you can do is laugh at them.’ 

But Mikey doesn’t get discouraged, he knows talking about marriage or love in general has been a touchy subject with his mom since his dad left the year before, and as he overheard his Tía Victoria tell his mom one night that past summer when he was supposed to be in bed but snuck out to eavesdrop, his mom had “let that bastard steal your light, steal your belief in the existence of true love” so he doesn’t blame her too much, she just doesn’t believe that he could love this girl forever, after all his dad was supposed to love him and his mom forever, and he didn’t. But Mikey held on tight to the other thing his Tía told his mom that night “but you know some people do have their happy endings, some people do find one person to love and be with them forever.” Mikey just knows, deep in his bones, he just knows that he and Marisol will fall into that category, that they will be together forever. 

Despite Mikey’s confidence based on his Tía Victoria’s words to his mom, it turns out that its not just his mom though, all of his Tías and Tios (even Tía Victoria!) have the same reaction when he announces that he has found the love of his life that weekend at their family gathering in the park. All of them start chuckling and shaking their heads and telling him how cute he is that he thinks like that and how good it is that he still believes in love despite _everything_. 

Mikey simply storms off to go sit by himself, it doesn’t matter to him that none of them believe in him and Marisol, and that Spider and his other cousins are teasing him about her and loudly chanting ‘Mikey and Marisol sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g’ and asking him when the baby is getting here and when his wifey was going to show up to their family gathering, since 'she’s family now after all' and laughing loudly. Mikey just tunes them all out by thinking about the butterflies in his stomach when Marisol catches his eye or gives him a smile, and the dinosaurs that jump in his heart every time their hands brush across the table as they do their school work. 

His days that past week had been much like the first one back, with few words but spent with her in silence, and Mikey was in heaven. Despite the few words shared between them (each time held so closely in his heart he is sure he’ll never forget them), every day Mikey learns more and more about Marisol and falls even deeper in love, its almost too much for his young heart to take and every day he swears someday he’s going to burst, but he treasures each new piece of information about her so he doesn’t mind. 

He learns how smart she is and now, rather than being annoying, it makes his heart soar in pride. He learns how kind she is that every time he struggles with schoolwork she just smiles and says “I got you” and helps him through it. He learns how courageous she is in the way she never backs down from anything the teacher throws at them, and she never shows fear even when he’s terrified about all the new schoolwork they have to try to figure out. In this Mikey learns another new thing about Marisol, how determined she is, how she never gives up on anything unless she’s completed it to the best of her ability, and Mikey is completely in awe. With every new thing Mikey learns about her he just thinks about how lucky he is to know her at all. 

So who cares if his family doesn’t believe in his feelings or in them? He’s determined not to care about what they think, though its admittedly harder then he thought. But just as he’s beginning to question his love for Marisol, his Abuelita comes over to sit next to him, and she gives him hope. She tells him how she believes him, she believes that he’s telling the truth about his feelings for Marisol by the look in his eyes when he talks about her, and the smile on his face. She tells him to never give up on Marisol, to always be true to that instinct, that feeling that they are meant to be together, and to never let it die, no matter what everyone else says. She tells him of her best friend María, and how she married a boy that she had loved since they had started school a long long time ago, and they are still together to this day. 

Though Mikey doesn’t say it out loud, those words coming from his Abuelita mean everything to him, and that day he makes a promise, to her and to himself, that he will live by her advice, and he will never give up on Marisol. It doesn’t matter that she may not like him back right now, he knows that someday she will, and thats enough to keep up hope (and though he doesn’t know it at the time, 9 years later when he is 16, standing in front of his entire school on stage in tights of all things, he gets proven right).


End file.
